DiSCLAiMER:I do not own any characters from FFVII, they are copyright to SQUARE ENiX.

OPERATiON KiSARAGi

Chapter 1

…One of those Days…

The deafening pounding of rain beating mercilessly on the roof was the only sound heard. Occasionally there would be a rumble of thunder here and there with a few bolts of lightning but what was one to expect of a thunderstorm. It was another one of those days, the ones that were full of the same routine. Nothing new had been heard about the strange weather, in a way it was refreshing.

If not boring at the same time.

It didn't usually rain in Mideel, it was always the same weather, some sunshine here and there but nothing overbearing.

"Ugh… No… I don't wanna get up... "

Those were the disgruntled words of a certain ninja. It had been a good three years since the defeat of Sephiroth and things had gone back to normal. Towns were being rebuilt and mako reactors shut down permanently, the planet was in need of something new to help sustain human life. Mako reactors were not one of these.

Yuffie had gone into an isolation of sorts, Wutai no longer held anything remotely significant or of any value to the young ninja. She instead chose to continue her pointless wanderings upon the planet in search of more materia.

Of course, this was a rather crude look at life. Materia snatching and random encounters with monsters that led her with various cuts and bruises would have to get old to the now nineteen year old ninja.

"Get up! You've paid for one night only, and guess what? That night is over"

The innkeeper was a rather annoying guy. He had a bad habit of being both rude and disgusting at the same time. Yuffie had caught the creep leering at her when she had first walked in. It only helped to remind her of her state of dress and how she was in rather desperate need of shopping.

"Ugh… five more minutes."

Glaring at the shinobi ninja, he sighed before he walked out. He would be coming back later to remind her she only had paid enough for one night and that was it. He had more important people coming here anyways.

A flash of lightning and the low rumbling of thunder alerted Yuffie to her surroundings. Stretching slowly like a cat, she sleepily opened her eyes; it had been a while since she'd had the chance to sleep in a bed and she was damn well going to stay in bed as long as possible. The rain and thunder only helped give more cause to her decision. Who would want to go shopping and traveling in this weather anyways? She gazed about the small room she had rented for the night, why was she here anyways?

Oh right…I left Wutai…hmm what else? Oh yeah… I forgot about THAT problem… so much for aimless wandering…

Slowly rising into a sitting position she winced as her muscles protested loudly. A small glowing orb caught her attention, growling she ignored it. That little orb had cost her quite a beating.

She had to travel nonstop too so that she could recuperate and not freeze to death. Deciding to forget about her train of thought about that particular subject she'd think more about non important things. Such as beds and food.

She missed having a nice bed to sleep upon and a nice hot meal. On her wanderings the cold ground was her bed, and whichever monster she happened to slain first would be her meal. It of course would be chewy and not so deliciously flavored but rather plain, for where was one to get spices? She, of course, always carried some black pepper with her. It helped give SOME taste to the barely identifiable yet edible creature she had slain and cooked. That and she had this weird thing for red peppers. If they were available damn straight she was going to chop them up and put them in her meal… like her good ol' granny said spicy food was good for the heart.

That and only a complete wuss would be incapable of eating something so hot. Yeah, if Yuffie was to marry somebody someday he better damn well like spicy food.

The rain had slowly stopped and was now a slight drizzle, barely there but still noticeable. Deciding she'd slept in late enough she got slowly got up and headed to the bathroom. A shower was another thing she missed, it was hard to take a long good bath in a lake when you had to make sure no crazy creature was going to sneak up on you and make you their next breakfast or dinner... whichever came first.

Thus Yuffie stripped her clothes off jumped into the shower with the water running on HOT, and proceeded to belt out the song she bangs she bangs in one of the most tone deaf voices ever heard.

Nearby neighbors having heard her scream out "She bangs! She bangs! Whooo!" opened their window before bellowing out "SHUDDUP!"

Hey, if she was going to be up this early then the rest of the world should be up too right?

A lone figure was the only animate being seen walking through the street as it drizzled slightly upon him. His gold spikes hanged limply, but still stubbornly refused to flatten down.

It was one of his characteristics, something that would never change; being a chocobo head.

Smiling slightly to himself, the mercenary continued to trudge through the mud as he made his way slowly to Eternal Heaven; it was a new bar that Tifa had set up herself. The steps leading up were slippery but nonetheless he gained traction and continued upwards. Opening the door, his senses were assaulted with the smell of alcohol, the masculine scent of men and amazingly to himself the sweet smell of strawberries. He glanced around till his cobalt blue eyes crashed with her wine colored eyes

"Teef…"

Tifa smiled, it had been a while since she'd seen those eyes.

"Cloud! Come here and have a drink!"

Smiling he proceeded to walk over to her, carefully picking his way through the throngs of people sitting. Tifa got a lot of business, her mixing skills were world renown and in a place like Midgar it was good to get away from all of the hustle and bustle of construction and the loss of many lives.

"It's been a while, Teef."

"It sure has! How have you been? Did you see Cid? How are Shera and he doing? I heard they were on their way to having another little boy."

Cloud smiled, Tifa forever the one to be keeping tab on her friends.

"Yeah, Shera is 5 months along and Cid is surprisingly still as nervous as the first time she was pregnant. He won't smoke around her and doesn't let the woman do anything by herself."

Tifa smiled, even through all the verbal abuse that man put Shera through she still loved him and Cid still happened to have his finer points. They continued to chat, catching up a little bit. Tifa of course did most of the talking; Cloud never really was much of a talker. Even when he was leader he said only enough to be said and that was that.

Tifa swallowed thickly, before deciding to bring up the subject of one of their former comrades.

"have you… heard from Yuffie?"

Cloud frowned; their young ninja friend had been a good ally. Even though she had stolen from them they missed her bubbly attitude and cheerful appearance. Shaking his head he sighed, after the defeat of Sephiroth everyone kept in touch, even surprisingly so Vincent. Yuffie too, she went back to Wutai after staying there for 2 months she upped and disappeared. No one had heard a word from her since. Everybody refused to admit she was dead, Godo said she did this kind of thing all the time. Hopefully they'd hear from her soon…

"Oh Cloud, I forgot to mention. Reno is here."

Cloud glanced at her, confusion evident on his face.

"Reno?"

"Yes, he said that… he had some news that might interest you. He's in the backroom."

Nodding his head he stood up and took a swig of the drink Tifa had made for him before walking to the backroom. It was just full of alcohol and other miscellaneous items that were not of to much importance to Tifa.

Opening the door his eyes focused on fiery red hair before he fully realized he was staring at Reno. Narrowing his eyes slightly he stepped fully into the room before closing the door.

"Reno"

Said redhead turned his head towards the short blonde, he was lazily drinking a beer.

"Yo Cloud"

Reno grinned, the twin scars on his cheeks reaching upwards slightly to his eyes, the group Turks still existed. They helped Reeve and their work wasn't as degrading as before. They were bodyguards and intelligence to headquarters. Problems that were arising and that needed to be snuffed out got sent to them. Their first way was to negotiate, in a new world there was new rules. Bloodshed would not be first priority, it was second.

"You got something for me?"

Reno grinned lazily like a cheshire cat,

"Always the one to cut right to the chase. How about Tifa mix us a few drinks and we catch up on old times?"

Cloud growled, his blue eyes were turning colder by the minute,

"I believe you have some news for me Reno."

"Oh! That." Smirk. He took another swig from his beer before sitting down at a table, there were playing cards on it along with some money. He probably had been playing somebody earlier. "Well, I heard you guys been searching for that little ninja of yours, and lucky for you I got news."

Cloud's eyes turned hopeful, Tifa would be happy to hear news of her friend.

"She's dead."

Instantly, he felt a deep pit of disdain and bitterness in his stomach, only Reno could make bad news appear like good news. "What do you mean dead?"

Reno sighed, "Sit down Cloud, it's a long story." Cloud obliged, grabbing a seat and sitting across from Reno.

"Well, she's not dead yet, but she's going to be. Word is, she ran away from Wutai relinquishing leadership to instead run about the world; poor Yuffie though got mixed into the wrong crowd."

Cloud narrowed his eyes, wrong crowd? Yuffie? Sure, she's a thief but she's not the kind of person to do extremely bad things. "What do you mean wrong crowd?"

"Wrong crowd as in people like me. Yuffie made some friends, turns out her friend wasn't really a friend. He was apart of a smuggling ring, they called themselves "The Raging Bull".

Yuffie and him got close he let a few things leak and they would strike strategically at some points to uh… relieve some passerby's of their objects. She was forever the thief. Anyhow, Yuffie has no idea of the importance of the things she was robbing of these people. He just said really good materia, gave her an idea of some of their powers and she bought it.

The problem is… he had ulterior motives. He wanted to get a hold of a certain item, it of course had to be a materia otherwise it would hold little interest to our ninja. Anyhow, it was being researched by Neo-Shinra scientists. New kind of summon, instead of the summon doing their thing and leaving these ones could be summoned to stay as long as the user wanted and do whatever command that was wished.

They could take human forms etc it was still being researched. With such a powerful summon on their side, these guys could infiltrate any base get what they want and leave. This thing can take on any form and if controlled by the wrong person imagine all the things they could get away with. Shit, I'd steal one of those if I could."

Cloud narrowed his eyes on the Redhead.

Reno grinned at him innocently, looking anything but the innocent kid he was trying to be. You like to narrow your eyes at me a lot huh

"But I wouldn't, cause I'm a good law abiding citizen. Yeah uh… back on topic. She's got one of these in her possession, good thing that she can't activate it right now otherwise we'd be in a shit load of trouble. Anyhow, the ring wants it back. They want it back now; with that kind of power they'd be unstoppable. They've got their top assassins out there ordered to retrieve the materia and kill the girl."

Cloud leaned back in his seat before sighing, "This is where I come in right?"

Reno grinned, "And here I thought all blondes were slow. Yeap, you got it. You of course can bring all your buddies in but we need that materia. From what Intel says, Yuffie was last seen heading towards Mideel. Were not sure though, but our trackers are on her."

"if you've already got trackers why do you need Avalanche?"

"She'd notice a bunch of our trackers sixty miles away, she'd automatically bolt. She trusts you guys though."

Cloud groaned slightly, before slowly massaging his temples. He just hoped to lead an ordinary life, one with no Sephiroth or annoying brats or stupid Shinra. Yuffie was a friend, no matter how annoying she was.

I have a feeling I'm going to regret this. "When do we start?"

Reno grinned, once again reminding Cloud of the Cheshire cat. Cloud hated that damn cat, just like that stupid movie. One day he would bash Reno's head in.

"Now"

AN: So, a slow start I know. But of course no story is a story without some foundation correct! ;D sooo uhm. Yeah. Il be updating sporadically. Since I cant even keep to my HW due dates lol ; but hope the beginning isn't to long or boring.. ;